Brits are often said to be behind the Americans when it comes to technology. That's not always the case, but it certainly is with digital content that punters part with their hard-earned for.
US market research company Nielsen questioned tablet owners on both sides of the Atlantic about their content purchases. In almost all …

Yea

UK doesn't have the services

US has Netflix... UK does't have a decent equivalent. In fact once you factor in how many services are available to folk in each country, it may end up being surprising the UK's numbers are as high as they are.

Lower disposable income - simples!

The average US disposable income (as PPP) is about $23k per person, in the UK it's about $17k [ source: wiki ]

Why would anyone expect british online spend to be as much as other, richer, peoples? Or even that "more is better" or that "lagging" is necessarily a bad thing (maybe profligacy is worse) ? Given the relative amounts of spendable dosh per head, it's amazing that brits spend as much as they do.

Re: Now what's that phrase...

Subscription model and lossy DRM'd files

I'd rent movies online when I was at a loose end if it was a one shot deal. But paying every month when I might not have time to watch anything? Forget it (LoveFilm & Netflix.) As for music, I want lossless files with no DRM. So the result of all this is that I watch movies when they reach TV or are free on sites like Youtube and I buy music on CD then rip to FLAC on a NAS for distribution around the house.